Tag Archives: Food Safety

JOWA AG Pasta has been the largest manufacturer of pasta products in Switzerland since it was founded in 1931. It is important for the company that its production operations run smoothly and meet strict quality standards.

Precision temperature and humidity probes from Rotronic are used to measure the climates in the factory’s six production lines, which predominantly manufacture dried pasta for the retailers such as Migros (Switzerland’s largest retailer). As a testament to the quality of Rotronic probes some units are over 15 years old and are still performing as required having only undergone routine calibration and adjustment to ensure that they provide consistently accurate accurate data.

JOWA AG manufactures 18,000 tonnes of pasta per year and is thus the largest pasta producer in Switzerland!

The pasta market is highly competitive and food legislation strict. It is therefore all the more important that the pasta is produced in the finest quality without production stoppages and rejects. The drying process plays a key role in the production of dried pasta and is therefore accorded top priority at JOWA. In order to control the climates optimally, temperature and humidity probes from Rotronic are used in the production lines. To preserve the food for a long shelf life and prevent mould and negative microbiological processes, the pasta is dried to a very specific level. Over drying wastes time, energy and produces a poorer quality product, under drying reduces shelf life and risks spoilage. Humidity and temperatures therefore need to be monitored closely during production. Legislation in Switzerland states that pasta products may not contain more than 13 percent water.

High Demands on Probe Accuracy

JOWA has been manufacturing pasta at its site in Buchs AG since 1963. The requirements of food standards, law and customers are rising continuously.

“Every single production step needs to be traceable in ever more detail, down to each single packet of spaghetti. The temperature and humidity of each production step must be recorded exactly.”

If unwanted temperature and humidity variations were to occur in the pasta, this could lead to quality defects such as crumbling. The pasta would then dry irregularly and break during cooking. For this reason a sample is taken of every product from the first three and last three pallets for quality assessment. The heads of the different departments evaluate the products daily according to various specified properties such as taste and appearance.

Oliver Höfler explains: “If we have to recall products from various stores, this means an enormous financial loss of several ten thousand francs and also a severe blow to the image of our products. A dissatisfied customer – that is something we cannot afford. For this reason it is essential that we are able to rely on the measuring accuracy of the Rotronic probes to 100 percent.”

In addition to this, samples need to be taken for analysis from ongoing production every four hours. “ We greatly appreciated the open and transparent collaboration with Rotronic.” Oliver Höfler, JOWA AG, Switzerland Migros dried pasta perfectly monitored. Rotronic I200 sensor, providing reliable service for more than 15 years.

Project Workflow: Good and Long-Term Planning

Planning calibration time is the key to success with humidity instruments. JOWA AG in Buchs stops production twice a year, two weeks in winter and two weeks in summer, in order to check all equipment and machinery and so maintain the high quality standards. Andreas Zülle, head of production, ensured that the 50 probes (both the I200 transmitters dating back to at least the year 2000 and the newer HygroFlex5 generation) were disconnected right at the start of the last inspection so that Marko Schulze, Rotronic’s qualification technician on site, could begin calibrating the measuring devices. All probes were also catalogued. Marko Schulze: “JOWA’s planning was ideal, I was able to check all probes and either get them back into shape or replace them, and then we still had enough time to test the newly adjusted probes.”

Smooth implementation of the inspection and calibration procedure was important to Andreas Zülle: “After the calibration, our process specialists were able to start up the production lines again without problem.” Oliver Höfler adds: “We greatly appreciated the open and transparent collaboration with Rotronic, found Marko Schulze to be an extremely competent partner and are sure we will be able to carry out calibration of our instruments even more efficiently next time. They have now been catalogued in detail. On top of that, we can also check the probes during operation with the Hygropalm from Rotronic.” Both sides benefit from good planning and a good working relationship.

Some Interesting Facts about Jowa

JOWA Pasta has been producing dried pasta for more than 50 years

The durum wheat semolina needed for production comes from a mill in Wildegg that also belongs to JOWA.

A team of 46, working three shifts a day, ensure daily that high-quality raw materials are transformed into products at an optimum price-performance ratio .

JOWA employs a workforce of around 3,200 people and, with more than 140 apprentices and trainees, is the biggest training company in the Swiss bakery industry.

JOWA AG is the leading Swiss bakery and supplies its customers from the retail trade, convenience stores and food service sector daily with a wide range of products and individual service concepts.

Incubators in General

Right from the point when human beings started to cultivate land they were strongly dependent on external influences. The levels of rain, sunshine, CO2 as well as soil quality defined the success rate of plant growth. Like plants, every organism has its specific requirements for optimal reproduction. Incubators are used to artificially generate an organism’s ideal environment. Even the ancient Egyptians learned that the rate of successfully hatched chickens increased drastically when they put the fertilized eggs in a big oven built out of bricks that was permanently heated slightly. Although in that case, only the temperature was “controlled”. The Egyptian egg oven can be considered the earliest incubator. But hatching eggs is only one application where incubators are used. Other important usages are the growth of bacteria, viruses and spores for research, diagnostic analysis or even drug production

“Egyptian Egg-oven.” Published in “The Penny Magazine”, August 10, 1833.

Facts & Figures:

India’s poultry industry has to expand from 2010 until 2013 annually by 12-15% to fulfil local demand only.

The average chicken weight doubled since 1934 and is now around 2.5kg.

The US chicken consumption grew from 22kg per capital in 1980 to 39kg in 2011.

Why the Need to Measure

Various elements need to be measured in order to provide an ideal environment for organisms to reproduce.

Temperature

For incubators that are used for chicken hatching, temperatures from 37.2°C to 37.7°C are ideal for incubators with fan circulation. If the incubator has no fan 38.8°C is recommended for best results. For bacteria generally 35°C is best.

Incubator and shaker for growing cell cultures in liquid media

Humidity

For growing bacteria, high levels of humidity are required, the majority need 90%rh or higher. The widely known food poisoning bacteria “Salmonella“ only grows at 95%rh and above. For most moulds 80%rh is already sufficient to promote growth.

Humidity is also extremely important when hatching chicken eggs. Within the egg is a tiny air bubble that gets bigger during the growth of the embryo, but if the humidity level is to low the fluids that are essential to the final growth of the embryos are lost too quickly. A humidity level between 50-60%rh is considered ideal.

Inside an incubator which is able to control humidity levels.

Carbon dioxide

In nature the CO2 level in a chickens nest is around 0.4% or 4000ppm compared to the surrounding air that has only 400ppm. Keeping the CO2 level in an incubator between 4000ppm to 6000ppm is necessary for a normal development. Especially in the late development of the eggs, the embryonic production of CO2 increases as incubation proceeds and therefore should be removed from the environment to keep the CO2 at a safe level.

Also in the research of cross-breeding or genetically modifying plants, a controlled CO2 environment is key to speed up the development process.

As it is nearly Easter, I thought it would be a good idea post something related to eggs, unfortunately not the chocolate kind…

Chicken hatcheries in general

It takes about 21 days to hatch a chicken and during that time, it is crucial that the surroundings are controlled for it to be successful. Egg hatching farms transform the chickens into “broilers” or egg laying hens. Meat from egg hatching farms is the most consumed worldwide.

Facts & figures:

Approximately 49 billion chickens are consumed worldwide every year. That is 134 million every day.

Sustainability of chicken meat increases by 20%, when using CO2 for modified atmosphere processing.

Why the need to measure CO2?

Less staff required to run the breeding stations thanks to all hatching happening at around the same time. This means it is easier to plan shipments and know how many birds can be transported at a time. This results in less capital and reduced transport costs.

A smaller number of birds die during transportation, which results in more profit per shipment and less feed losses.

More efficient and cheaper feeding options, both through feed reduction and reduction in time.

Faster and easier to slaughter the animals using CO2, and there is no unnecessary suffering to the birds.

Packing using CO2, means food will last longer in supermarkets and for customers once purchased. This means a reduction in food waste from expired food.

How does it work?

The fertilized eggs are placed in a chamber, in which CO2 levels are controlled, depending on what stage of development the eggs are in. Living eggs contribute to the levels of CO2 (not 100% of all eggs are alive), which means that you have to monitor the CO2 continuously.

It has been shown that during embryonic development, the supply of CO2 has positive effects on the health of the organism after birth. Control of CO2 in chickens in development has also led to a more controlled hatching time.

Once CO2 levels insid an egg reach a certain level, the fully developed chickens start to hatch. When the chick has hatched, oxygen will be supplied. Once the eggs are hatched, they are sent off in trucks where the birds continue to develop during the transportation. To ensure the good health of the chicks during their transportation, the CO2 levels in the truck are controlled for the whole journey.

It has been found that a bird’s metabolism works slower at high concentrations of CO2. Controlling CO2 levels therefore means it can take less time and less food to raise broilers or egg laying hens. This means production will be cheaper for the companies, it´s also more sustainable to use less feed per pound of chicken.

The chickens are slaughtered after being knocked out with high levels of CO2, which only take a few seconds. This method is more humane than killing by electrical stunning.

The idea of growing plants in environmentally controlled areas has existed since Roman times. The emperor Tiberius ate a cucumber-like vegetable daily. The Roman gardeners used artificial methods (similar to the greenhouse system) of growing to have the vegetable available on his table every day of the year.

The next step from the conventional greenhouse as we know it today will be the introduction of “vertical farms”. Currently, sophisticated so called “plantscrapers“ are being planned or are already under construction in Sweden, Japan, China, Singapore and the United States.

Skyscraper farming might yet be a possible answer to the question of how to feed the nine billion people that are expected by the middle of the century. These types of green-houses have a tightly con-trolled level of temperature, humidity & CO2, sophisticated watering systems and in addition to sunlight, advanced artificial LED lighting that is specifically designed and installed for each plant family. This way, the crops grow much faster and very efficiently all year round. It is estimated, that the Swedish plantscraper that is planned to be 54m high, will produce thousands of tonnes of food a year, enough to feed up to 30,000 people.

Facts & figures:

Tomato is the second most important commercial vegetable crop after potato. Current world production is about 100 million tonnes produced on 3.7 million hectares.

In the year 2000, per capita consumption of fresh tomatoes in the U.S. was 17.8 lb,/ 8.73 kg.

About 85 percent of the world’s soybeans are processed, or “crushed,” annually into soybean meal and oil. Around 98 percent of the soybean meal that is crushed is further processed into animal feed.

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) reports that world production of carrots and turnips (these plants are combined by the FAO for reporting purposes) for calendar year 2011 was almost 35,658 million tonnes.

Why do we need to measure humidity?

Greenhouse humidity levels are important both in prevent-ing plant diseases and promot-ing healthy and strong plant growth. High humidity can promote Botrytis and other fungal diseases. High humidity also restricts plant transpira-tion, which in turn limits evapo-rative leaf cooling and can lead to overheating of plant foliage. If high humidity persists for a long time, the restriction of transpiration can limit the “transpiration stream” of nutrients and can lead to nutrient deficiencies.

Low humidity levels are best avoided because these may increase foliar transpiration to the extent that the root system cannot keep up. Humidity is perhaps the most difficult of the greenhouse conditions to control. Most growers simply aim to avoid the extremes of humidity. Over most temperature ranges, a greenhouse humidity of 50 – 85 %rh is generally safe. Low humidity can be managed with the use of misters and foggers. It is also useful to shade plants under conditions of low humidity to reduce the rate of transpiration.

Transpiring plants add water vapour to the greenhouse air, increasing the humidity inside the greenhouse. Therefore, managing high humidity starts with ventilation control. Replacing warmer, humid greenhouse air with cooler, drier external air. Ventilation also involves significant energy losses, and therefore ventilation must often be accompanied by heating. Therefore, lowering greenhouse humidity with a combination of ventilation and heating increases energy costs significantly.

Rotronic is pleased to announce the introduction of its smallest ever temperature and humidity logger. The HL-1D measures only 90 x 60 x 23 mm, is well specified with good accuracy, durable and has high ingress protection against dust and water (IP67). HW4-Lite validated software for programming, data download and analysis is included. The logger is available now at a competitive, inexpensive price.

Hygrolog HL-1D

The Rotronic HL-1D logger is very suitable for monitoring and recording conditions for a wide range of applications across all industries, in commerce and for research organisations. The compact logger is particularly suitable for monitoring high value products of all types during transportation to ensure that quality is maintained.

– However customers buying the coffee capsules and pods were asking for detailed water activity measurements for each batch. In addition for BRC Food Safety and shelf life validation of the final product, water activity was required.

Why are there these differences and can one measurement be used to determine both values?

Moisture contentis probably the simplest value to understand. It is simply the quantity of water contained in a material. Traditionally measured through loss of weight on drying. This method raises some issues, depending on the drying temperature you may not remove all water or may also remove other non water compounds.

More modern methods resolve these issues and use infra red absorption. This way the water content is directly measured, the method is non-destructive and far quicker.

Moisture content is typically given as a percentage in terms of weight.

Water Activity(aW) is a measure of the free water in a sample, and ranges between 0…1. Pure water would have an aW of 1.0. As water activity measures the ‘free’ or ‘active’ water in a sample it is more relevant to growth of organisms, chemical processes, enzyme activity and physical parameters like size and clumping as these are only effected by the water that can be chemically interacted with. Interestingly Water Activity is related to Moisture Content but it is product and temperature specific.

aW… is more relevant to growth of organisms, chemical processes, enzyme activity and physical parameters

Rotronic HygroLab Water Activity Measurement – A measure of the ‘free’ water

What is free water? Water can be bound in materials in two broad ways.

1. Chemically Bound Water. Is bound so tightly that it cannot be utilised by bacteria, enzymes etc. It can be removed through high temperature heating.

2. Free Water. Is bound through weak bonds, structural diffusion, capillary condensation and surface binding. It can be utilised by bacteria and can exchange with the environment, it is also removed through heating.

For instance a whole grape would have the same moisture content as two halves of the same grape. However the aW would be far lower in a whole grape as much of the water is bound inside the grape skin and only made free when the grape is cut in half!

Take a look at our Water Activity white paper or our Knowledge base for more information.